1991 535i/5 powered by Frijoles

My car recently started getting the shakes and it seems like everyone on the freeway made it a point to drive at 55mph so my car turns into an old washing machine. I got tired of the 55mph shimmy and spent a small fortune on Powerflex thrust arm bushings, Lemforder thrust arms (upper control arms) and TRW lower control arms to fix the problem. As far as I can tell, all the suspension components are original on the car and have 199,402 miles as of today.

My buddy came over to lend a hand and we quickly got to work. The upper and lower control arms were in terrible shape. The ball joints were so lose that I could easily move them around with my pinky!

Heres the Lemforder upper control arm with Powerflex bushings installed next to the old tired arm. I didnt have the metal inserts installed in the bushing in this picture yet.

Heres the lower TRW aluminum control arm next to the old one.

The job was pretty easy. The only problem we had was with the front passenger lower control arm. It took maybe 20-30 mins of trying to separate the ball joint. The separator I used for the other arms wasnt cutting it with this one and at one point it looked like it was going to break. I ended up using the Mazda ball joint separator that I use on the front lower control arms of 3rd gen RX-7s (FD3s). This and a zap of my impact wrench popped it off in a second! After that the control arms went in smoothly and it was just a matter of torquing the bushing side of the arms under load. It took about 2 hours to complete the job counting from the time the car rolled into the garage and when the car was rolled out for a test drive.

I didnt notice any harshness with the poly thrust arm bushings like many people on the forums worry about. My car rides a bit rougher than most because of my 18 inch wheels so this may be the reason I didnt notice any difference with them. The car feels great with these new arms and the 55mph shimmy is gone! Now I need to order new sway bar links, steering rods and everything else thats worn out in the front so I can move to the back of the car and replace all the worn components  once my bank account recovers.

The front upper and lower arms were done at 199,402 miles.

Back when I was putting my car back together, I ordered a fuel door hinge off of PelicanParts.com to replace the broken one my car came with. I didnt think of going to the dealer for this part because dealers usually charge an insane amount of money for everything.

The aftermarket hinge I got didnt work. The clips that are supposed to snap onto the body of the car were bad (bad batch I suppose) which let the fuel door come off completely when opening it. I asked on Bimmerforums about this and a few people said their hinge was just like mine and most just lived with it. A little over two years later, I finally went to the BMW and bought an original one. It ended up being about $15 dollars. Pretty cheap compared to what aftermarket hinges cost.

The OEM hinge fit perfectly in every way. The clips snapped into place without much effort and are very secure. I should have checked with the dealer in the first place.

Here’s a shot comparing the clips of both hinges. The OEM clips are kinda hard to see in my picture but they stick out much more than the aftermarket one I bought.

Heres the part number in case you need it for the original one: 51171928197

Yep.

The old starter (possibly the original one) had seen better days and would give me some problems at random times. I bought a rebuilt Bosch starter and the engine spins so much faster at startup now.

This is not the most exciting entry in the blog but this item makes my car one piece newer. Eventually the car wont have many old worn out original parts left but rather new quality parts.

A previous owner had the exhaust system held with wires and 2 rubber hangers. The wires were holding up the exhaust in place of the center rubber hangers (1st from the left in the pic) and the exhaust was held with very old rubber hangers. The rubber hangers finally stretched too much and ripped causing the wires to slowly come undone until the exhaust fell 5 minutes from my place. I ghetto rigged the exhaust on the side of the street with some nylon strap so I could make it to my place and change the exhaust hangers. Good thing my new hangers had just came in.

Here you can see how much the old hangers stretched compared to the new one. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the makeshift wire hanger a previous owner used in place of the center hangers. The muffler (at the rear bumper) needs two of the bigger hangers with the open center while the center of the exhaust system (near the cat converter) needs two of the smaller hangers (1st from the left in the picture). My exhaust sits higher than it ever did and it looks great.

BMW part # for the center hanger (1st from the left in the picture): 18211177708

BMW part # for the rear hanger (2nd from the left in the picture): 18211712838

My car took two of each but check with www.realoem.com to double check.

I’ve been waiting for the perfect time to install my moonroof seal and today was the perfect day to do so. We got some heavy rain and decided to fix the bad seal which let water inside the cabin when it rained hard or when I washed the car. Since the car was nice and dry indoors, I carefully removed the glass roof and started peeling away the old dry seal.  The new one went in pretty easy and I was back on the road in about 30-45 mins. The seal is pricey at about $83 dollars but its money well spent since I no longer have wind noise or water coming in.

The oxygen sensor that came with the car went bad after driving through a flooded intersection when it was raining hard the other day. Good thing I had a brand new NTK oxygen sensor that I never got around to install. The engine feels great again and hopefully gives me better gas mileage.

My car came with a stock cassette player that didnt have the security code. Rather than bug the dealer for the code, I started my search for a headunit that had a display that matched the amber color of the dash and it had to play mp3s. This is easier said than done. I looked through every big electronics chain, went to a lot of small stereo shops and looked through various internet catalogs trying to find a match. Amber colored headunits were out and crazy flashing disco light ones were in! Just as I was getting ready to give in, JVC released it’s new line of headunits that matched perfectly with the dash and could play mp3′s!!! I picked one up as soon as I saw it and the results were fantastic.

The sound is great and can be adjusted what seems like a million ways. I love the fact that its looks are subtle and most importantly, it matches the interior’s colors perfectly.

…it’s now a black diamond. Pretty cheezy I must admit but the color of the car is Diamond Black Metallic or Diamontschwarz for you internet nerds. I was at the gas station and just happened to have my camera with me. I was nearly hit by a woman driving a very large SUV while taking these pictures. For some reason she just had to use the pump near my car even though every other pump was empty! Enough jibba jabba and onto the pics…

The car has come a very long way since I bought it but it still needs work to get it to the point where I can honestly say I’m done with it.

Is anyone really ever finished with a project car? Somehow I doubt that the answer is yes.

Finally had a chance to work on the suspension. The old shocks were shot. Both of the front ones leaked oil and the car pretty much drove like crap. New shocks and springs were long overdue. I replaced the stock components with Vogtland lowering springs and Bilstein shocks.

While working on the rear, I realized that the rear swaybar was completely missing the swabar link on one side and half of the other on the other side. I replaced them as well and the car handles great! Now I need to replace the control arms, bushings and I’d like to get new spring pads and new upper mounts for all 4 shocks. I need to run into a small fortune to do that though.

Here’s what the car looks like with the new suspension:

I cant stick my head between the tire and the fender anymore to inspect things.

I love this picture.

Took the car in for a smog test and although my car got a nasty hot probe in its pipe, I’m happy to report that it passed without a problem. Now I can get tags and put on my shiny new license plate!